TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 685 



properties in the United Kingdom, might be obtained by a proper conservation of 

 the natural water resources of those streams. 



The consideration I have been able to give to this subject has helped to convince 

 me that, although a vast amount of labour and research has been devoted to it, it, 

 is nevertheless one in which " a more systematic direction to scientific inquiry " is 

 urgently needed. 



A vast collection of scientific facts exists, but they require arrangement and 

 collation, and future observations should be more strictly classified, so that the 

 bearing of each one, both on the others and on the subject at large, may be properly 

 appreciated with a view to a practical result. 



In France this is being done to a very large extent, and an excellent Map 

 showing the phenomena of the rivers and streams of that country is now in course 

 of preparation. For many years also very accurate observations of the phenomena of 

 the whole of the basin of the Seine have been taken, and have been centralised 

 (centralisees) by that eminent engineer, whose loss all who bad the privilege of 

 knowing him either in his work or in private intercourse are deploring, M. Belgrand, 

 late Inspector-General of the Ponts et Chaussees, and by his able coadjutor, 

 M. M. G. Lemoine. These observations have been published in the form of 

 diagrams, admirable in their simplicity of design, which show at a glance the 

 bearing of every one of those phenomena on the general character of that river. 



In Italy also, where there exists a distinct department having control of the 

 hydraulic works of that country, the same exhaustive system of collation and record 

 has been followed, and the results have been published in a series of tables. In 

 Germany, although the same complete system is not in vogue, its chief river has 

 been the subject of most thorough investigation, the results of which have been 

 published in a beautiful map of the Rhine and its regulating works. 



In our own country, as might be expected from the number of engineering 

 works which have been executed, there probably exists an amount of detailed 

 information on special and often minute points which is unsurpassed, and probably 

 unequalled in the world. 



But, although as I have said before, a great number of eminent men have treated 

 in an exhaustive manner the phenomena relating to many of the principal rivers of 

 Great Britain and Ireland ; yet, as far as I am aware, there has been no attempt 

 to collect and combine these most valuable, though detached fragments of know- 

 ledge, so that their relation to one another might be seen, and a general conclusion 

 arrived at. This can only be done by the establishment of a public department 

 analogous to those described as already existing in France and Italy. 



I do not wish it to be understood that in suggesting the collection of additional 

 data relating to the phenomena of rivers, I am advocating delay in dealing with the 

 existing state of things until the facts have all been ascertained. On the contrary, I 

 believe thatthe first step oughttobe the establishment of adistinct Water Department, 

 which should at once address itself to the remedying of the evils which are found 

 to be most pressing. ■ The time has long since arrived when the present neglected 

 state of many of our most important streams should be dealt with, and that this was 

 also the conviction of Parliament and of the Government is evident, from the 

 appointment of so influential a Committee as that presided over by the Duke of 

 Richmond last session. 



Even the imperfect sketch which I have been able to place before you 

 will have made manifest, I think, the enormous importance of the subject 

 and of the interests involved — interests subject to periodical losses arising 

 from the present imperfect organisation, or, I may say, the present entire 

 want of organisation ; — losses which are not only monetary, and therefore to 

 a certain extent capable of being estimated, but which affect health and 

 imperil life, and on that account, as is the unhappy experience of the highest 

 as well as the lowest of the community, utterly incapable of appreciation. How, 

 for instance, can we estimate the loss sustained by the country at large by the 

 premature death of that noble-minded and accomplished gentleman, the Prince 

 Consort, whose life and energies were devoted to the encouragement of all the 

 objects which this Association is established to foster and promote, and who showed 



